Is He An Eagle Or All Ego?

AP

I thought I’d be able to let this go all week and then just comment on it in the NFL Notes for next week, but some things just can’t fester that long.  I’ll start this out by saying that I don’t mind the whole “diva” wide receiver thing that pervades the league.  Some of them are jerks (TO) and some of them are downright fun (Chad Ocho Cinco, I can’t help it, I enjoy him).  Some whine their way off teams and shine (Randy Moss) and others whine their way off teams and never show the stardom that they flashed with their first team (Javon Walker).  The four examples I just listed have all screwed their teams over at one time or another and created a maelstrom of press.  None of them, however, have pulled a DeSean Jackson.

Who, you may ask, is DeSean Jackson?  He’s the wide receiver the Eagles plucked out of the second round in this year’s draft.  Early word on him was that he was big in the talent but maybe even bigger in the ego.  Nothing new there, he is after all a wide receiver.  He zipped up and down the field at Cal and looks to have the talent to do that in the NFL.  His talent isn’t the issue here.

The issue is that on Monday night, Donovan McNabb lobbed a long pass right into Jackson’s waiting hands and he streaked down the field well ahead of any Cowboy that attempted to cover him.  He headed to the end zone and in a flagrant display of idiocy, flipped the ball backwards as he crossed the goal line.  That would have been well and good if he had waited to flip the ball until after it crossed the plane, but no, he did it one yard or so before.  So the ball just sat there and fortunately the two Dallas defenders didn’t bother to touch it, because Doofus Boy didn’t actually score and that could have been a fumble recovered at the one.  Dallas called for a review, because they can see, and sure enough, the ball was placed at the one.  Philly managed to punch it in on the next play, probably leaving Westbrook owners in fantasy delighted but DeSean Jackson owners sick to their stomachs.

So, why bitch about something that didn’t end up biting the team on the ass after all?  Because the move was low class.  And it was all about him.  And that attitude coming from a rookie who hasn’t done dick in the NFL just doesn’t work for me.  I don’t like it in the ones that have accomplished something, but at least they’ve proven themselves on the field.  I sure as hell am not going to tolerate it in the rookies that haven’t learned their place yet.

I’m not even an Eagles fan, though I like McNabb, and that infuriated me.  I just don’t like stupid.  15 yard celebration penalties after the fact are annoying, but at least the team scored before the receiver did something stupid.  What further bothered me is that Andy Reid didn’t get in that kids face and give him hell for what he did.  I would have benched him for the rest of the game and made his life hell in practice all week, and who knows, maybe he has, but Andy should know that coddling the receiver is not the way to go, after all he had TO on his team and we know what happened there.

I hold out hope that something was done behind the scenes, I can’t imagine McNabb didn’t say something to the kid, but if you don’t make an example for him, he’s really not going to care.  He’ll just try to top his idiocy the next time he gets the chance to score.  I’m sure he will probably manage to cross the goal this next time at least.  Maybe that’s the only lesson someone like him can learn, score before you act like a jackass.  I guess we need to learn to expect the least from the divas, then they’re bush league moves won’t be so disappointing.

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